Kubernetes Platform Engineer (Deansgate, Manchester, United Kingdom)

Work locations: Manchester or London

Working Style: Hybrid- 3 days a week in office, 2 days from anywhere

Why this job matters

Our ambition is to become the world’s most trusted connector of people, devices, and machines. BT Networks plays a key role in this ambition, and many of our core network features and functions are moving to cloud, taking advantage of the scalability, flexibility, and collaborative benefits of cloud. Kubernetes is a key component of our strategy in this area.

What you’ll be doing

• Design and development: Working closely with an agile development team of Kubernetes engineers to co-design and develop a Kubernetes managed service for telco functions within a high security private cloud environment.
• Automation: Automating cluster deployment, scaling, and management using infrastructure as code (IaC) and container orchestration tools. Collaborating with development teams on infrastructure deployment best practices, encompassing CI/CD pipelines and related frameworks such as Terraform, Jenkins, and Ansible.
• Operations: Utilising a DevOps approach, providing documentation and incident escalation support to operations teams to facilitate brilliant in life service and incident management of the Kubernetes managed service.
• Integration: Building a deep understanding of varied software spanning security, logging, monitoring, cloud infrastructure, networks, and how best to integrate these into a cohesive platform solution.
• Innovation and Evaluation: Contributing to the exploration of cutting-edge technologies through the deployment of new technology proof-of-concept projects related to Kubernetes, participation in their assessment, and development into an in-life service.

What you'll bring

• Mandatory: 5+ years’ experience of IT with a focus on networking (IP networking, routing, switching, and firewall principles and protocols).
• 3 years Kubernetes experience, at least 1 year managing Kubernetes infrastructure and with varied Kubernetes distributions.
• Development experience with, but not limited to Terraform, Ansible, Python, Golang.
• Have worked with Ubuntu Linux on virtual and physical servers.
• Experience with on prem Kubernetes distributions (e.g RKE2, Openshift etc).
• Expertise in integrating with a GitOps workflow, employing infrastructure as code (IaC) best practices.
• Proficient in implementing CI/CD pipelines to ensure consistent, automated deployments.

• Nice to have: Private cloud (particularly OpenStack) experience desirable but not essential.
• Configuration of PKI, certificates, HashiCorp Vault, and software supply chain security, in the context of cloud and Kubernetes environments.

What’s in it for you

• 10% on target bonus
• BT Pension scheme, minimum 5% Employee contribution, BT contribution 10%
• Life Assurance Cover
• Exclusive colleague discounts on our latest and greatest BT broadband packages, BT TV with TNT Sports and NOW Entertainment
• From January 2025, equal family leave: receive 18 weeks at full pay, 8 weeks at half pay and 26 weeks at the statutory rate. It’s for all parents, no matter how your family is made up.
• Enhanced women’s health support: including help with menopause symptoms, cancer screenings, period care and more.
• 25 days annual leave (not including bank holidays), increasing with service
• 24/7 private virtual GP appointments for UK colleagues
• 2 weeks carer’s leave
• World-class training and development opportunities
• Option to join BT Shares Saving schemes

About us

BT Group was the world’s first telco and our heritage in the sector is unrivalled. As home to several of the UK’s most recognised and cherished brands – BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet, we have always played a critical role in creating the future, and we have reached an inflection point in the transformation of our business. Over the next two years, we will complete the UK’s largest and most successful digital infrastructure project – connecting more than 25 million premises to full fibre broadband. Together with our heavy investment in 5G, we play a central role in revolutionising how people connect with each other. While we are through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, meaning we can reward our shareholders for their commitment and patience, we are absolutely focused on how we organise ourselves in the best way to serve our customers in the years to come. This includes radical simplification of systems, structures, and processes on a huge scale. Together with our application of AI and technology, we are on a path to creating the UK’s best telco, reimagining the customer experience and relationship with one of this country’s biggest infrastructure companies.

Change on the scale we will all experience in the coming years is unprecedented. BT Group is committed to being the driving force behind improving connectivity for millions and there has never been a more exciting time to join a company and leadership team with the skills, experience, creativity, and passion to take this company into a new era.

A FEW POINTS TO NOTE: Although these roles are listed as full-time, if you’re a job share partnership, work reduced hours, or any other way of working flexibly, please still get in touch. We will also offer reasonable adjustments for the selection process if required, so please do not hesitate to inform us.

DON'T MEET EVERY SINGLE REQUIREMENT? Studies have shown that women and people who are disabled, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification and criteria. We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement on the Job Description, please apply anyway - you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.